State attorney general sues to keep Louisiana's 7 congressional seats

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said late Monday that his office has filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court to try to retain seven congressional seats for Louisiana, instead of the six it will have under a new redistricting plan based on the data from the 2010 U.S. Census.

'Louisiana's complaint simply asks the court to require the federal government to re-calculate the 2010 apportionment of U.S. House of Representatives seats based on legal residents, just as the (U.S.) Constitution requires,' state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell wrote.

Caldwell's filing says that Louisiana is losing a member of Congress because the Census "included illegal foreign nationals along with holders of guest-worker visas and student visas" in the count of "lawful residents" of all states.

In a written statement, Caldwell said that because of the practices of the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010, states "with large numbers of illegal foreign nationals" picked up seats in Congress at the expense of Louisiana and other states "with low numbers of illegal foreign nationals."

In a special legislative session in March, state lawmakers had to shrink the number of Louisiana's congressional districts from seven to six. The way the plan was drawn, 7th District Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, and 3rd District Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, have been thrown into the same district.

Congressional elections under the new plan will be held next fall, unless a lawsuit prevents that from happening.

"Louisiana's complaint simply asks the court to require the federal government to re-calculate the 2010 apportionment of U.S. House of Representatives seats based on legal residents, just as the (U.S.) Constitution requires," Caldwell said.

The lawsuit would not require a new Census to be taken because "the needed information is already available in the 2010 Census results," Caldwell said.

Caldwell spokeswoman Amanda Larkins said that Louisiana, so far, is the only state to file a lawsuit with the high court making such a request. She called the legal action rare.

There currently are six Republicans and one Democrat in the state's U.S. House delegation.